When peat swamps are drained for agriculture, the peat begins to decompose, and is an enormous source of carbon emissions. Based on visual interpretation of high-resolution (30 m) satellite images, a new study in the journal Global Change Biology: Bioenergy determined that industrial plantations covered over 3.1 Mha (20%) of the peatlands of Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo in 2010, surpassing the area of Belgium and causing an annual carbon emission from peat decomposition of 230–310 Mt CO₂e.

The majority (62%) of the plantations were located on the island of Sumatra, and more than two-thirds (69%) of all industrial plantations were developed for oil palm cultivation, with the remainder mostly being Acacia plantations for paper pulp production. Tropical peatlands cover more than 25 Mha in Southeast Asia and are estimated to contain around 70 Gt of carbon.

Historical analysis shows strong acceleration of plantation development in recent years: 70% of all industrial plantations have been established since 2000 and only 4% of the current plantation area existed in 1990. ‘Business-as-usual’ projections of future conversion rates, based on historical rates over the past two decades, indicate that 6–9 Mha of peatland in insular Southeast Asia may be converted to plantations by the year 2020, unless land use planning policies or markets for products change. This would increase the annual carbon emission to somewhere between 380 and 920 Mt CO₂e by 2020 depending on water management practices and the extent of plantations.

—Miettinen et al.

The research team included members from the National University of Singapore; Stichting Deltares, The Netherlands; International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), Washington, DC; and the University of Leicester, UK.

The publication of the study coincides with the close of the comment period on a new US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis of the carbon intensity of palm oil biodiesel. In January, EPA released lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) analyses on biodiesel and renewable diesel produced from palm oil that estimated GHG emission reductions of 17% (a mean 81 kg CO₂e/mmBtu) and 11% (a mean 87 kg CO₂e/mmBtu) respectively for these biofuels compared to the statutory baseline (97 kg CO₂e/mmBtu) petroleum-based diesel fuel used in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. Slightly more than half of the GHG emissions for these biofuels in the EPA’s analysis came from land use change. (Earlier post.)

At those levels, palm oil biofuels do not meet the minimum 20% greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction compared to the statutory baseline for petroleum-based diesel performance threshold required for renewable fuel under the RFS program.

However, notes Dr. Chris Malins of the ICCT, one of the study co-authors, the EPA based its assumptions about the amount of peat swamp that would be destroyed by future palm oil expansion on old data, reflecting the development of the palm industry up to 2003. The new work shows that this has led EPA to substantially underestimate the threat to this valuable ecosystem, the ICCT suggested in its comments to the EPA assessment of the palm oil pathway. Even if there is no further acceleration, the Indonesian prediction would be too low by a factor of two, while in Malaysia the situation is currently at least four times worse than EPA’s modeling predicts.

While representatives of the palm oil industry have protested that the EPA findings are too harsh, correcting the analysis to reflect the more up-to-date information on the destruction of peatland suggests that palm oil biodiesel could be more climate-damaging than fuel from the Canadian oil sands.

I suggest that we would expect at least 40 kgCO₂e/mmBtu extra, making palm oil biodiesel about 20% worse than the RFS2 fossil baseline [approximately 116 kg CO₂e/mmBTU]. That number is in my opinion conservative, and consistent with a slight reduction in the rate of peat conversion. If the acceleration we have seen since 1990 were to continue, the result would be even higher.

—Dr. Chris Malins

As a comparison, a study produced by ICF for the US Department of State’s evaluation of oil sands-derived gasoline and diesel (produced for the Keystone XL pipeline analysis), found, based on an evaluation of multiple studies, GHG emissions for diesel produced from Canadian oil sands crude ranging from an average 100 kg CO₂e/mmBTU to an average 110 kg CO²e/mmBTU (converted from g CO₂e/MJ). (There is a variance based on production method, etc.)

The effect isn’t only a problem for biodiesel from palm oil. Because vegetable oil markets are closely connected, without reform increasing demand for any vegetable oil biodiesel will have a negative impact on the Southeast Asian peat forests.

The new study used the satellite imagery to map the encroachment of oil palm plantations onto peatlands from 1990 to 2000, from 2000 to 2007, and finally 2007 to 2010. Despite increasing awareness of climate change in that period, the rate of peat destruction was higher in this last 3 year period than ever before.

Everywhere we looked, the drainage of peat to plant palm oil is increasing. In the Sarawak province in Malaysian Borneo, for instance, based on the last 3 years we would expect over 80% of future palm expansion to be at the expense of peat.

—Dr. Chris Malins of the International Council on Clean Transportation

These findings are echoed in a new open-access study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Kim Carlson et al., which found that from 2008-2011 69% of palm oil conversion occurred at the expense of peat, even despite the introduction of a moratorium in 2011.

Existing laws do little to constrain the expansion of palm onto peat. The report states that “On the basis of land allocation maps, a total peatland area of 5.5 Mha, nearly half the total peatland in the area, is formally allocated to conversion to industrial oil palm plantations in Indonesia.” Stronger regulatory restrictions are urgently needed if the loss of these enormous reservoirs of carbon is to be avoided, according to the authors.

Resources

• Miettinen, J., Hooijer, A., Shi, C., Tollenaar, D., Vernimmen, R., Liew, S. C., Malins, C. and Page, S. E. (2012), Extent of industrial plantations on Southeast Asian peatlands in 2010 with analysis of historical expansion and future projections. GCB Bioenergy. doi: 10.1111/j.1757-1707.2012.01172.x

• ICF Report: Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Petroleum
  Products from WCSB Oil Sands Crudes Compared with Reference
  Crudes

• Kimberly M. Carlson, Lisa M. Curran, Dessy Ratnasari, Alice M. Pittman, Britaldo S. Soares-Filho, Gregory P. Asner, Simon N. Trigg, David A. Gaveau, Deborah Lawrence, and Hermann O. Rodrigues (2012)
  Committed carbon emissions, deforestation, and community land conversion from oil palm plantation expansion in West Kalimantan, Indonesia
  PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1200452109

TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. has been awarded new business for its next-generation Electric Park Brake (EPB) technology with two major North American based vehicle manufacturers. The EPB system functions as a conventional hydraulic brake for standard service brake applications, and as an electric brake for parking and emergency braking. TRW expects the penetration rate for vehicles sold in North America with EPB to approach 10% by 2015.

TRW EPB. Click to enlarge.

TRW launched the first integrated caliper EPB system in 2001 and is bringing the wide range of functional and ancillary benefits of EPB to the North American market with the launch of EPB expected in the 2013 model year. The new systems will feature TRW’s next-generation technology including its Gen 5 Electronic Control Unit (ECU).

TRW EPB technology goes well beyond the simple functionality of holding a vehicle in a stopped position; because it is based on electronics it can be integrated with other vehicle systems. For example, the EPB can work with a vehicle’s Electronic Stability Control system in emergency stop situations to enable full four-wheel anti-lock functionality enhancing safety in an emergency braking situation.

Our fifth generation EPB ECU utilizes a dual microcontroller safety architecture with an application-specific integrated circuit. The memory size is scalable up to 1MB with the option of incorporating (external) customer software modules. For greater packaging and performance flexibility there is an option to integrate longitudinal, lateral and yaw rate sensors within the ECU. Our latest ECU is compliant with the ISO 26262 safety standard and puts TRW in an excellent position to meet future requirements. TRW also offers an integrated EPBi system where control of the unit is integrated into the Slip Control system, and we can also work with slip control systems from other companies to offer this integration function to vehicle manufacturers.

—Seth Ravndal, chief engineer for EPB systems in North America

The EPB system, utilizing electrical cables and a control switch instead of a typical foot pedal or hand lever, simplifies routing and allows for greater freedom of design for vehicle interiors. Its smaller package can significantly reduce weight when compared to conventional park brake systems. For example, in a larger SUV/pickup popular in the North American market, an EPB system can save as much as 16 pounds versus a Drum-in-Hat rear park brake system. Furthermore, for the OEM, the assembly of the EPB system into the vehicle is much simpler and the robustness of the system can result in fewer warranty complaints.

Proterro, a startup delivering a non-crop-based, noncellulosic sugar, has successfully and consistently demonstrated high sucrose productivity from cyanobacteria in its own laboratory, as well as in the field at two independent greenhouse sites, according to Proterro CEO Kef Kasdin.

At the three locations, two in the Midwest and one in Northern California, the Proterro modular photobioreactors yielded consistently high sucrose production, in two cases for more than three months of continuous operation, she said.

We saw no contamination affect the sucrose productivity, and even when we deliberately introduced microbial contamination into the photobioreactors the cyanobacteria coexisted with these other organisms and sucrose productivity did not diminish.

—Kef Kasdin

Proterro has engineered cyanobacteria that naturally produce sucrose—and only sucrose—and successfully genetically engineered them so that they secrete the sucrose in a continuous, high-yield process.

Instead of a liquid phase bioreactor to gro the algae, Proterro has demonstrated and scaled a solid-phase modular photobioreactor that optimizes the organisms’ access to light and carbon dioxide, and uses significantly less water.

The organisms grow on a composite fabric substrate, enclosed in a photobioreactor that surrounds them with their carbon-dioxide feedstock. Water and nutrients are trickled into the photobioreactor, with its modular nature affording a robust, scalable and controlled cultivation environment for photosynthetic organisms.

The agricultural biomass used today to produce biofuels and chemicals requires time to grow and expensive harvesting, storage and extraction steps to produce a clean fermentation-ready sugar. Our patent-pending process produces ready-to-ferment sucrose without any of those steps and currently yields 10 times more sucrose per acre than sugarcane—with more improvements still to come.

—Kef Kasdin

Proterro plans to go to market through joint ventures with select partners who can use Proterro’s sucrose to produce, through existing industrial methods, downstream products, including commercial scale fuels and chemicals, Kasdin said. The company will position its photobioreactors at the front end of these downstream facilities, where the carbon dioxide generated during fermentation could be captured and used to make even more sugar.

Founded in 2008, Proterro is backed by Battelle Ventures and Braemar Energy Ventures, and its leadership team includes board members and advisors with extensive experience from BP, Cargill, Gevo and Solazyme, as well as in creating and advancing early-stage technology companies.